Duel Academy Review

by EJ on January 21st 2010, 9:24 am

Name of the Forum: Duel Academy
Address: http://duelacademy.forum0.net or http://www.duelacademy.net
Area's you wish the reviewer to review: Everything Please

And i'm interested...i just dun need to bump

by EJ on January 23rd 2010, 2:01 am

by **Jophy** on January 23rd 2010, 6:24 am

*Tagged*

I finish the half of the review last week when you requested, I'll continue it when I have time.

by **Jophy** on January 23rd 2010, 11:57 pm

Duel Academy

Congratulations! Your free forum review has been completed. The forum review will hold many tips, suggestions, comments, and feedback that's convenient and voluntary for your forum. Here is your forum review:

Generalities

First Impressions (Score: 14/20):
First I'd say that I also know yu gi oh or duel academy so I might give some good opinions and feed backs here, so let's get started on the review, when I first opened the link, it led me to the portal, before I start on the portal, the first thing I noticed that's cool are the colors of the forum, it's a darky forum but with bit calming effect on the forum with blue colors there(and so are the graphics), and that's a nice work, so let's go to the portal, the portal is looking nice and organized, the widgets there are nicely presented and it's looking good where the widgets are positioned, everything seems to be in the right place, there are only a few widgets found there, they're not that many so that's nice, the portal is a bit informative with some widgets(specifically on column2 middle) specifying the updates on the forum, nice work, but as I'd noticed, the portal's/forum's width seems very small/narrow, the portal widgets looks mushed up on the middle so you would need to extend your portal's/forum's width, so just try to fix that, let's head on to the index, the top portion of the index is brilliant, the major graphics are brilliantly made!(especially the banner), so nice work there, as I scrolled down, I noticed you had large images on every forums, but it's not bad, but for me, those large images on forums makes it hard for me to find the forum names to click, the index looks under construction with some incomplete images placed on the forums, the index is also long which is not good, and it seems everything is rumbled at the index, I will say some things that needs to be fixed on other criterias, so just try adjusting things here.
Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):
As I'd mentioned above, It's hard for me to find the forum's name to click because of large images on every forums which is not good, try to fix the size of those images, First, I'd say you had nice set and amount of related discussions about the main purpose of the forum, but I'd say you had too much off topic forums which are not related to the main purpose of the forum, overall, you had too much forums, some of them are not really needed, but it's impressive you had a bit large amount of posts on every forums, but this are the forums that have been left dusted 'DA Feedback and Support', 'Advertising Board', 'BCTAU Control Hub', 'The Classroom', 'DMU Tournaments', 'Widgets' & 'DA Blogs Central', Considering that there are too many of them which is bad, so you would need to concentrate an activity to this forums or try merging them to other forums to increase more traffic on the forum, now, I also mentioned above that there are some forums that are not really needed on the index, first, I don't get why you have some graphics forum which is not really related to the forum's main purpose, this would just make the index long, so my suggestion here is just have 1 graphics board and move all of the graphics related topic there, it will save you more space and this can be connected to the off topic category since you don't have any choice or to delete those topics/posts, just make 1 graphics board, it will be better, another thing is you had too much off topic/discussion forums, try placing those off topic forums in the general discussion forum, this can also save you space and can shorten the index, now, let's move on to the organization of the forums & categories, everything seems to be placed professionally, arranged from important to non important forums, also, I noticed that the forums on the 1st category are all about the forum but the advertising board is indifferent there so it's better to place it at the off topic category as it has no connection to the forum, so try fix that, the descriptions on every forums are fine, so just try fixing the things I mentioned above.

Generalities total :: 19/30

Forum Style

Major Graphics (Score: 9/10):
Banner:
The banner is brilliant and looks cool! As I saw it, it's really catching my attention from the first time so must say that the banner is eye catching, it made me want to stick on this site, now, the banner has really light and calming colors(sky blue) which makes it attractive with some cloudy effect, if you will look it at the portal, you'll see how it partners with the color of cards there which is looking good! Nice work! The images placed there are characters related to yu gi oh/duel academy, the font used is fine, overall, the banner is the most attractive thing I'd seen on the forum so nice work here!(5/5)

Navigation Bar:
If I'm not mistaken, the navigation bars are kinda default ones, but it looks good on the index, one thing it makes it look good is it's border color(the blue at the bottom part) partners with the banner, that's a nice combination of major graphics, so that's a nice work! The other navigation bars(new topic & post reply) are good but they don't partner with the main navigation bars so that means they don't have same style, so try to have a full set of navigation bars so it will not look that the forum has different sets of navigation bars which looks odd.(4/5)
Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 10/10):
First, I must say that the forum is really dark with most of the colors placed on the forum are dark, some of the colors on the forum is black, blue, gray, and other more colors from the images on the index. It's a nice work you had some colorful images placed on the forums which makes it a bit colorful, you also had a nice work having blue colors on the major graphics which adds calming effect that is nice, so everything seems to be balance on this criteria, light colors would work on your forum too. SO nice work here.
Images & Icons (Score: 5/10):
The images on the portal are nice(the card ones), as I;d mentioned above, this card images partners with the color of the banner which makes it really look a gorgeous forum! So nice work there, the images on every forums are also fine but they are big, this causes the descriptions on every forums to be packed on the center which is looking bad, but it's a hard choice to make them smaller for the description to be in it's proper place or just retain, but it still looks good even if you don't change the size of the images there, as I'd mentioned above, it adds some colors on the index which is nice, now, I also mentioned above that the index looks under construction because some forums have images while some have none so this makes it, so if you want to have some pictures on other forums, try to have it all, it will be better, let's move to the next one, the 'who is online?' is good, kinda small but you can do better than that, try having icon there that is something related to the forum's main purpose, but limit it's size, the forum icons are nice,(new post, no new post & forum is locked) but the 'forum is locked' icon is a bit close to the other forum icons, they look the same, the color is the only 1 different on those icons so you would need to have some other style there that will make it look really locked so members can easily noticed it, you can just place an 'x' mark on it or anything that would relate to lock, so try to fix that, the other icons are just fine. So just fixed the things I mentioned here.

Forum Style total :: 24/30

Usergroups

Population of Groups (Score: 7/10):
If I'm not mistaken, there are about 13 total staff members on the forum, which includes 7 administrators, 1 moderator, and 5 testers, for the number of admins on the forum, I would say they're many but since there are alot of members being active the same as the forum is active, this number is still a nice amount for admin group however, it's still considered many and many would think this is an overpopulated forums which is bad, most of the people will just go away due to many people are leading and making decisions on the forum, so try reducing or minimizing up to 4 only, 7 is not really needed, if you want, you can transfer some into the moderator group because I'd seen only 1 moderators, but it's still up to you. So just try to minimize the number of admins.
Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 10/10):
In total, there are about 8 user groups on the forum which includes 3 staff groups(administration, moderation & tester group) and the rest are for other uses, 4 staff group is fine, don't add more unless the forum is under control with these 3 staff groups, add if needed only, this way, it won't look the forum is overpopulated with staff, and since this is kinda rolepay forum, it's acceptable you had a few miscellaneous groups for the subject of the forum, so that's nice, nothing wrong with the group colors.

Usergroups :: 17/20

Forum Activity

Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 8/10):
Our users have posted a total of 24222 messages
We have 865 registered users
The newest registered user is Michael

The total amount of posts posted on the forum is brilliant! 24,000 plus posts is a nice achievement and this shows that the forum s in progress to it's success, nice work, for 865 members, that's considered alot, new posts where also posted while I'm reviewing the forum, most of the forums has larger amount of posts but I also noticed about 50% of the forum has the latest posts made last 3 days or so, so try to get some more activity and keep it running!
Users Active (Score: 8/10):
Members connected during last 24 hours : .::MUFC::., ajdinm, Chazzprinceton, dark girl, Darkface, DrakonEX, EJ, Enigma_m7, evilBlood, FenixFX, firestorm, hamouda, HunterZero, itachi the criminal, Italiano, Johan, Kaizen, Kira Amadeus, kyosuke kiryu, L, Mega Monarch, Mello, Michael, nekofjung, Nox, OverLimitDarkness, Pilover, Raphael, Renji abarai, Rorona Zoro, Ryo Bakura, Sam Tisdale, sangoshen, Seeker, Shane Grey, stardusthellas, The Avenger, The Blue Spirit, the light angel, TristanTaylor, Unkown, vampir54

The number of members logging in each period is also brilliant, there are also up to 4 members being logged while I'm reviewing the forum, and there's also lots of guests there, 26 members being the most online is also a nice achievement! But considering you have about 800 plus members, not even half are logging in, the rest are inactive so you need to send out weekly newsletters about the latest updates on the forum to get them back!

Forum Activity total :: 16/20

Other

Grade Legend: A- Outstanding! B-Very Good C-Good D-Fair/Average E-Poor F-Very Poor

Aestheticsm: B
Organization: C
Originality: B
Forum Language: B
Professionalism: C
Rules and Terms of Services: C
Cleanliness of The Index/Portal: C
Creativity: B
Forum Features: A
Staff Moderation and Activity: B

Avarage:B-

Overall Marking: 76/100
You have passed!

What could be done to improve your forum:
Fix the things I'd mentioned above

The best thing I like about your forum:
The banner!

Would you like to share your review on your forum, on another forum, or with your friends? Then here you go... grab the code!

Code:: [center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourfo10.png[/img] [color=limegreen][b][font=Trebuchet MS Bold Italic][size=24]Duel Academy[/font][/b][/size][/color] [/center] [table][tr][td][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/review12.png[/img][/td] [td]Congratulations! Your free forum review has been completed. The forum review will hold many tips, suggestions, comments, and feedback that's convenient and voluntary for your forum. Here is your forum review:[/td][/tr][/table] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/genera12.png[/img] [b][color=limegreen][size=19]Generalities[/size][/color][/b] [list=1] [*][b]First Impressions (Score: 14/20):[/b] First I'd say that I also know yu gi oh or duel academy so I might give some good opinions and feed backs here, so let's get started on the review, when I first opened the link, it led me to the portal, before I start on the portal, the first thing I noticed that's cool are the colors of the forum, it's a darky forum but with bit calming effect on the forum with blue colors there(and so are the graphics), and that's a nice work, so let's go to the portal, the portal is looking nice and organized, the widgets there are nicely presented and it's looking good where the widgets are positioned, everything seems to be in the right place, there are only a few widgets found there, they're not that many so that's nice, the portal is a bit informative with some widgets(specifically on column2 middle) specifying the updates on the forum, nice work, but as I'd noticed, the portal's/forum's width seems very small/narrow, the portal widgets looks mushed up on the middle so you would need to extend your portal's/forum's width, so just try to fix that, let's head on to the index, the top portion of the index is brilliant, the major graphics are brilliantly made!(especially the banner), so nice work there, as I scrolled down, I noticed you had large images on every forums, but it's not bad, but for me, those large images on forums makes it hard for me to find the forum names to click, the index looks under construction with some incomplete images placed on the forums, the index is also long which is not good, and it seems everything is rumbled at the index, I will say some things that needs to be fixed on other criterias, so just try adjusting things here. [*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):[/b] As I'd mentioned above, It's hard for me to find the forum's name to click because of large images on every forums which is not good, try to fix the size of those images, First, I'd say you had nice set and amount of related discussions about the main purpose of the forum, but I'd say you had too much off topic forums which are not related to the main purpose of the forum, overall, you had too much forums, some of them are not really needed, but it's impressive you had a bit large amount of posts on every forums, but this are the forums that have been left dusted 'DA Feedback and Support', 'Advertising Board', 'BCTAU Control Hub', 'The Classroom', 'DMU Tournaments', 'Widgets' & 'DA Blogs Central', Considering that there are too many of them which is bad, so you would need to concentrate an activity to this forums or try merging them to other forums to increase more traffic on the forum, now, I also mentioned above that there are some forums that are not really needed on the index, first, I don't get why you have some graphics forum which is not really related to the forum's main purpose, this would just make the index long, so my suggestion here is just have 1 graphics board and move all of the graphics related topic there, it will save you more space and this can be connected to the off topic category since you don't have any choice or to delete those topics/posts, just make 1 graphics board, it will be better, another thing is you had too much off topic/discussion forums, try placing those off topic forums in the general discussion forum, this can also save you space and can shorten the index, now, let's move on to the organization of the forums & categories, everything seems to be placed professionally, arranged from important to non important forums, also, I noticed that the forums on the 1st category are all about the forum but the advertising board is indifferent there so it's better to place it at the off topic category as it has no connection to the forum, so try fix that, the descriptions on every forums are fine, so just try fixing the things I mentioned above. [/list] [color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 19/30[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/forums10.png[/img] [b][color=darkred][size=19]Forum Style[/color][/b][/size] [list=1] [*][b]Major Graphics (Score: 9/10):[/b] [size=11][u][b]Banner:[/b][/u][/size] The banner is brilliant and looks cool! As I saw it, it's really catching my attention from the first time so must say that the banner is eye catching, it made me want to stick on this site, now, the banner has really light and calming colors(sky blue) which makes it attractive with some cloudy effect, if you will look it at the portal, you'll see how it partners with the color of cards there which is looking good! Nice work! The images placed there are characters related to yu gi oh/duel academy, the font used is fine, overall, the banner is the most attractive thing I'd seen on the forum so nice work here!(5/5) [size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar:[/b][/u][/size] If I'm not mistaken, the navigation bars are kinda default ones, but it looks good on the index, one thing it makes it look good is it's border color(the blue at the bottom part) partners with the banner, that's a nice combination of major graphics, so that's a nice work! The other navigation bars(new topic & post reply) are good but they don't partner with the main navigation bars so that means they don't have same style, so try to have a full set of navigation bars so it will not look that the forum has different sets of navigation bars which looks odd.(4/5) [*][b]Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 10/10):[/b] First, I must say that the forum is really dark with most of the colors placed on the forum are dark, some of the colors on the forum is black, blue, gray, and other more colors from the images on the index. It's a nice work you had some colorful images placed on the forums which makes it a bit colorful, you also had a nice work having blue colors on the major graphics which adds calming effect that is nice, so everything seems to be balance on this criteria, light colors would work on your forum too. SO nice work here. [*][b]Images & Icons (Score: 5/10):[/b] The images on the portal are nice(the card ones), as I;d mentioned above, this card images partners with the color of the banner which makes it really look a gorgeous forum! So nice work there, the images on every forums are also fine but they are big, this causes the descriptions on every forums to be packed on the center which is looking bad, but it's a hard choice to make them smaller for the description to be in it's proper place or just retain, but it still looks good even if you don't change the size of the images there, as I'd mentioned above, it adds some colors on the index which is nice, now, I also mentioned above that the index looks under construction because some forums have images while some have none so this makes it, so if you want to have some pictures on other forums, try to have it all, it will be better, let's move to the next one, the 'who is online?' is good, kinda small but you can do better than that, try having icon there that is something related to the forum's main purpose, but limit it's size, the forum icons are nice,(new post, no new post & forum is locked) but the 'forum is locked' icon is a bit close to the other forum icons, they look the same, the color is the only 1 different on those icons so you would need to have some other style there that will make it look really locked so members can easily noticed it, you can just place an 'x' mark on it or anything that would relate to lock, so try to fix that, the other icons are just fine. So just fixed the things I mentioned here. [/list] [color=darkred]Forum Style total :: 24/30[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/usergr10.png[/img] [b][color=teal][size=19]Usergroups[/size][/color][/b] [list=1] [*][b]Population of Groups (Score: 7/10):[/b] If I'm not mistaken, there are about 13 total staff members on the forum, which includes 7 administrators, 1 moderator, and 5 testers, for the number of admins on the forum, I would say they're many but since there are alot of members being active the same as the forum is active, this number is still a nice amount for admin group however, it's still considered many and many would think this is an overpopulated forums which is bad, most of the people will just go away due to many people are leading and making decisions on the forum, so try reducing or minimizing up to 4 only, 7 is not really needed, if you want, you can transfer some into the moderator group because I'd seen only 1 moderators, but it's still up to you. So just try to minimize the number of admins. [*][b]Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 10/10):[/b] In total, there are about 8 user groups on the forum which includes 3 staff groups(administration, moderation & tester group) and the rest are for other uses, 4 staff group is fine, don't add more unless the forum is under control with these 3 staff groups, add if needed only, this way, it won't look the forum is overpopulated with staff, and since this is kinda rolepay forum, it's acceptable you had a few miscellaneous groups for the subject of the forum, so that's nice, nothing wrong with the group colors. [/list] [color=teal]Usergroups :: 17/20[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/foruma30.png[/img] [b][color=orange][size=19]Forum Activity[/color][/b][/size] [list=1] [*][b]Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 8/10):[/b] [quote]Our users have posted a total of 24222 messages We have 865 registered users The newest registered user is Michael[/quote] The total amount of posts posted on the forum is brilliant! 24,000 plus posts is a nice achievement and this shows that the forum s in progress to it's success, nice work, for 865 members, that's considered alot, new posts where also posted while I'm reviewing the forum, most of the forums has larger amount of posts but I also noticed about 50% of the forum has the latest posts made last 3 days or so, so try to get some more activity and keep it running! [*][b]Users Active (Score: 8/10):[/b] [quote]Members connected during last 24 hours : .::MUFC::., ajdinm, Chazzprinceton, dark girl, Darkface, DrakonEX, EJ, Enigma_m7, evilBlood, FenixFX, firestorm, hamouda, HunterZero, itachi the criminal, Italiano, Johan, Kaizen, Kira Amadeus, kyosuke kiryu, L, Mega Monarch, Mello, Michael, nekofjung, Nox, OverLimitDarkness, Pilover, Raphael, Renji abarai, Rorona Zoro, Ryo Bakura, Sam Tisdale, sangoshen, Seeker, Shane Grey, stardusthellas, The Avenger, The Blue Spirit, the light angel, TristanTaylor, Unkown, vampir54[/quote] The number of members logging in each period is also brilliant, there are also up to 4 members being logged while I'm reviewing the forum, and there's also lots of guests there, 26 members being the most online is also a nice achievement! But considering you have about 800 plus members, not even half are logging in, the rest are inactive so you need to send out weekly newsletters about the latest updates on the forum to get them back! [/list] [color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 16/20[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/genera12.png[/img] [b][color=limegreen][size=19]Other[/size][/b][/color] Grade Legend: [b]A[/b]- Outstanding! [b]B[/b]-Very Good [b]C[/b]-Good [b]D[/b]-Fair/Average [b]E[/b]-Poor [b]F[/b]-Very Poor [list][*][b]Aestheticsm[/b]: B [*][b]Organization[/b]: C [*][b]Originality[/b]: B [*][b]Forum Language[/b]: B [*][b]Professionalism[/b]: C [*][b]Rules and Terms of Services[/b]: C [*][b]Cleanliness of The Index/Portal[/b]: C [*][b]Creativity[/b]: B [*][b]Forum Features[/b]: A [*][b]Staff Moderation and Activity[/b]: B [/list] [b]Avarage:B-[/b] [hr] [center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourov10.png[/img] [b][color=#00000e][size=20]Overall Marking: 76/100[/size][/color][/b] [size=24][b][color=limegreen]You have passed![/color][/b][/size] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/conclu10.png[/img][/center] [b][color=teal][size=14]What could be done to improve your forum:[/color][/b][color=teal][/size][/color] Fix the things I'd mentioned above [b][color=teal][size=14]The best thing I like about your forum:[/color][/b][color=teal][/size][/color] The banner! [hr]

by EJ on January 24th 2010, 12:36 pm

Thanks for review dude...but something i'd like to tell (The empty forums are mainly because topics are discussed for a while then get archived ) especially in widgets *They're archived weekly*
thank you tho...I'd apply later when i fix all above

by **MrMario** on January 24th 2010, 2:20 pm

Complete

Duel Academy Review

Duel Academy Review

Re: Duel Academy Review

Re: Duel Academy Review

Re: Duel Academy Review

Re: Duel Academy Review

Re: Duel Academy Review